Kantorowicz the historian, however, had no wish to see his own life become a subject of historical study. When he died in 1963, his will directed that all his personal papers be destroyed. Why had a historian so involved in history wished to erase himself from it? In Kantorowicz: Stories of a Historian, Alain Boureau confronts this question by writing a unique work which is as much a speculation on the nature of biography as it is a biographical study. In the absence of personal records, Boureau seeks to get at the interior life of this enigmatic individual through the recourse of "parallel lives"—real-life figures and characters from novels of the time who were faced with similar crises and who shared aspects of upbringing, training, and circumstance.
This fascinating, nontraditional biography, originally published in France in 1990, appears for the first time in English, translated by Stephen G. Nichols and Gabrielle M. Spiegel.
Kantorowicz the historian, however, had no wish to see his own life become a subject of historical study. When he died in 1963, his will directed that all his personal papers be destroyed. Why had a historian so involved in history wished to erase himself from it? In Kantorowicz: Stories of a Historian, Alain Boureau confronts this question by writing a unique work which is as much a speculation on the nature of biography as it is a biographical study. In the absence of personal records, Boureau seeks to get at the interior life of this enigmatic individual through the recourse of "parallel lives"—real-life figures and characters from novels of the time who were faced with similar crises and who shared aspects of upbringing, training, and circumstance.
This fascinating, nontraditional biography, originally published in France in 1990, appears for the first time in English, translated by Stephen G. Nichols and Gabrielle M. Spiegel.
Kantorowicz: Stories of a Historian
136Kantorowicz: Stories of a Historian
136Hardcover
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780801866234 |
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Publisher: | Johns Hopkins University Press |
Publication date: | 03/24/2001 |
Series: | Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society |
Pages: | 136 |
Product dimensions: | 5.25(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.66(d) |
Age Range: | 18 Years |